Google Adwords: What is it and why should you invest in a PPC Marketing Strategy?

Google Adwords, more informally known as Pay Per Click or PPC, is a method of advertising that is used to direct traffic primarily from Google’s search engine result pages to a website, blog or landing page. As the name suggests, the owner of the Adwords account is charged only when someone takes an action – when they click an advertisement. The price per click varies depending on a number of factors, including the maximum cost-per-click bid that you set within your own account.

Google also makes it easy for you to control your money by letting you set a daily budget with no minimum spend.

Over time interest in Google Adwords has grown

Take a look at the graph below from Google Trends. Over a period of 9 years interest in Google Adwords has more than quadrupled, a phenomenal feat considering the rise of other popular marketing methods such as content marketing and email marketing. If statistics from Google’s Economic Impact Report are not enough to tempt you to try PPC advertising, this graph should do it.

It is easy to understand PPC Marketing by first getting to grips with a few simple concepts

You are not buying ad space

Rather you are bidding on keywords that reflect your business, the content on your website, your products, services etc. These keywords will ideally be used in your advertisement copy and your advertisement will be displayed when a users search query matches your advertisement.

Every search begins a new auction

Just because you have placed a bid on a specific keyword, it does not mean your advertisement will be listed in the search engine result pages. Every time someone searches on Google, Adwords runs an auction to determine which adverts will show on the search result pages. How these adverts are ranked is another matter entirely, depending on the relevance of the search query to the advert copy and a number of other factors, like geography or ads that have been disapproved.

Your position will change

Because Google is always running a new auction every time someone enters their search query your position will fluctuate, especially as your competition changes. To rank adverts, Google uses a formula they call Ad Rank. Your Ad Rank is determined primarily by the quality of your advert and your bid amount. These are the things you will have to change if you want to beat your competition.

Benefits of Adwords

If you have launched a new website, product or service, Google Adowrds is a fantastic way to drive a targeted audience directly to your website. Even better, you can drive your audience to a specific page and fast, the second your page goes live, even before Google indexes it.

You are in control of your own budget. You set the maximum amount you want to spend per day, per campaign. And you only pay when users click on your advert in order to visit your website.

You can control who sees your advertisements. Pick a county, a country, a specific city. Wherever your target audience resides.

Google Adwords provides tools and detailed reports to help you figure out how to improve your campaigns. Using the reports you will be able to easily see what is, and is not, working.

You can make changes to your campaign any time you want to. This way, if your service offering changes or if you want to change dates, advertisement details or anything else for that matter, you can do so from within your Adwords account.

Why Google Adwords is a brilliant marketing channel

According to Brian Carter, author and director of digital marketing agency The Carter Group, there are four primary reasons that make PPC the best marketing channel:

Pay Per Click yields a high return on investment.

Pay Per Click drives instant, targeted traffic.

Pay Per Click helps you find problems with your offering, promos or website by showing you what people are responding to.

How can you get started?

Google Adwords may at first appear intimidating. If you have never used it before, there is an awful lot to learn. However over the years Google has made learning to use their advertising tool much easier. If you are interested in finding out more or would like to set up your own account, go ahead and take a look at Adwords Education by Google.

If you would like to jump right in and would like the advice and expertise of an agency that creates, manages and reports on campaigns for clients on an ongoing basis, then get in touch. We will be happy to discuss your business and marketing strategy with you in order to create campaigns that convert browsers into buyers.